After years of tension, Meredith Marks and Lisa Barlow have finally gotten their friendship back to what it was when they first joined The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. According to Marks, she’s “very happy” to have finally found herself in a “good peaceful space” with Barlow — though she also teased that things might not remain as smooth-sailing by the end of the show’s upcoming fifth season.
“I’m not going to give away what happens. But, yes, I am very happy about [reconciling with Lisa],” Marks told DECIDER when she stopped by our offices. “Lisa and I have found a good peaceful space with really just a new friendship.”
Marks compared her friendship with Barlow to her marriage with her husband Seth.
“It’s like my marriage. We call it our second marriage. We didn’t actually divorce and remarry. But it’s a new relationship,” Marks explained, referring to her brief separation from her husband in Season 1. “And that’s how I feel about the friendship with Lisa. We have kind of like a new beginning and it’s positive and it’s good.”
However, Marks subtly alluded to some trouble on the horizon with her on-again-off-again bestie. “You’ll see where we land at the end, but at least at the beginning, it’s really good and positive,” she cheekily added.
Bravo fans will remember that the two women were inseparable when they made their reality TV debut in 2020. Marks explained in the first season of The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City that they had been “set up on a friendship blind date” when she first moved to Utah and remained close ever since.
However, their friendship took a turn for the worse in Season 2 when Barlow felt unsupported by Marks and was subsequently caught saying damaging things about her friend in one of Bravo’s most infamous hot-mic moments. While Barlow had apologized for her remarks multiple times after the episode aired, her friendship with Marks remained fractured throughout Season 3.
It wasn’t until Season 4 that they finally started to move forward with one another.
The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City Season 5 premieres on Wednesday, Sept. 18 at 9/8c on Bravo. New episodes are available to stream the next day on Peacock.
